Davies selected as associate provost for international initiatives

Provost Christopher Eisgruber has named a new associate provost who will play a vital role in implementing the University's new international initiatives.

Diana Davies, director of international programs at the University of Iowa since 2000, will become Princeton's associate provost for international initiatives, effective April 14. She currently oversees offices including study abroad and international students and scholars and coordinates Iowa's linkages with institutions abroad and incoming scholars programs.

"I am delighted that Diana Davies will be joining Princeton's administration," Eisgruber said. "She is a recognized leader in the field of international education who combines a subtle understanding of university life with first-hand knowledge of diverse cultures and languages. I could not imagine a person better qualified to serve as Princeton's first associate provost for international initiatives."

Last October, Eisgruber and Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman proposed initiatives that map out an international vision for the University. In the words of the faculty committee's recommendations upon which they based the plans, the goal is to transform Princeton into "a center for a multitude of scholarly networks humming with activity and effectively responding to changes in scholarship and the vagaries of world affairs, while creatively defining the cutting edges of global research."

Davies will work with academic leaders and senior administrators to implement new policies and revise existing ones to make Princeton more hospitable to international activities. She will serve as secretary to the Council on International Teaching and Research, a new faculty governance board that will provide leadership and advocacy for international endeavors. She also will forge new links between Princeton and foreign universities and will assist with the oversight of budgets that support international programs.

A graduate of Indiana University with bachelor's degrees in political science and Slavic languages and literature, Davies earned a doctoral degree in comparative literature from the University of Rochester. From 1997 to 2000, she served as assistant director and then director of the Languages Across the Curriculum Program at Binghamton University in New York. During that time, she also was assistant director of international education.

Davies serves on the American Council on Education Internationalization Collaborative board of advisers. She has studied abroad in Russia and has traveled in more than 20 other countries. Some of her most recent trips have been to Botswana and Cuba, where she has conducted research on crocodiles through the EarthWatch Institute. She speaks Russian, Spanish and Czech.

"I am particularly excited about the approach that Princeton is taking to campus internationalization, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of this important process," Davies said. "Princeton faculty and administrators have determined that the University is not interested in adopting some readymade model for internationalization or imitating what others have already done. Princeton is setting out to develop an internationalization process that is right for it, that best utilizes its own, unique resources, while best meeting the needs of its own, uniquely talented students and faculty. I can hardly wait to get started!"